Unlocked Hearts
by Fifth Horseman
Summary: Neither of them knew it, but each held the keys to what the other had locked away. The lemon has been removed from this work for ratings reasons. See inside for links where the lemon version can be found. Chapter 2 is now up. First the cat, now the bee, another heart is unlocked.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: **Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo. He created this world, I'm just playing in it.

It took me six attempts at starting a Bleach fic before I hit this one and got something that stuck. Everything else I started seemed unworkable somehow, or started to go in directions I hadn't intended. As it was, I restarted this one three times before I got it to stay on track.

Anyway, this is my first attempt at a Bleach fic, though I have written pieces and scenes to help out another author, this is the first full fic attempt for me with this series. This also my first published lemon, not something I normally do.

**06/06/12:** Due to the current mess regarding ratings, I am removing the lemon from this work. If you want to read the lemon version, go to DeviantArt.

5Horse. deviantart. com

* * *

><p><em><strong>Unlocked Hearts<strong>_

_**Chapter 1:**_

It was a pleasantly warm night in Karakura. A half moon shone down among the stars in the clear sky and a gentle breeze stirred the air. It was still and quiet, the kind of silent peace one could only find in the middle of the night. Three thirty in the morning in this case.

A naked Yoruichi Shihoin sat across the open doorway that led out to the small balcony of a second story apartment located a few blocks away from the Urahara Shoten. Kisuke owned the building, it used to be an auto repair garage at one time with a residence on the second floor. She had free use of the place and stayed here at times when she needed some time to herself. As much as she liked Kisuke and Tessai and the kids, sometimes she just needed her own space.

She looked up at the moon and stars, appreciating the tranquility and quiet of the night. It was a stark contrast to the things that had been going through her mind tonight and to the things that had consumed her thoughts for some time now.

Looking into the room where the combination of light from the moon and a faded street lamp caressed the bare chest of her companion as he slept soundly in the western style, Queen sized bed, she allowed herself a gentle smile. His unruly mane of orange hair was spread out across the pillow and in the silence of the night she could hear the gentle sounds of his breathing and see the rise and fall of his chest.

It was a chest that carried far too many scars for someone his age, scars given to him through experiences he should never have had to have. He should have been going to school and having fun with his friends. He should have been chasing girls and planning for his future in the world of the living, not fighting hollows and carrying the fate of the world of the dead on his young shoulders as he fought to clean up the messes the shinigami made.

It was a chest that no too long ago had felt the touch of her hands and her lips, a chest that she had moulded herself to as they made love. The chest of a boy who was a man and more of a man than many she knew. A strong chest that contained a heart that could be as compassionate as it was strong and courageous.

Then there were his strong, rough hands, calloused from wielding a sword and fighting so many battles. Hands that had so nervously touched, squeezed, and caressed her body, and the strong arms that had wrapped around her and held her close in the afterglow of their lovemaking.

A hundred times her head warned her against following what her heart wanted and every time her heart rejected her head's protests. This was not some fleeting whim. This was not some short term affair to scratch an itch. This was real, very real. This time something had reached deep inside of her heart and latched on and wouldn't let go.

It hadn't come upon her quickly, it had taken a while to rise to the surface and make itself known. After all, it had to cut through her apathy towards relationships, a malaise, a fear almost, borne out the life of a high noble and of seeing too many people she knew get pushed into loveless arranged marriages that turned them into sad, lonely shadows of their former selves.

She had vowed to never be tied to someone that way. Not by a marriage of political convenience, or by her own doing. She lived her life her way and on her terms and anyone who wanted to be by her side would have to be able to live with that.

For over a hundred and ten years, longer even actually, there had been no one who had truly caught her interest. Of course, being on the run and the possibility of being hunted down by the Soul Society hanging over her head had made any notion of getting into a relationship a very foolish one. Any potential partner would have been in just as much danger as she would if anyone came to find her, and there was the possibility that she would get too comfortable and lose her edge, that she wouldn't watch her back or the backs of the other exiles with the same dedication.

She smirked. And then along came the orange haired young man that was sleeping in her bed and everything began to change. He was young and reckless, willing to run head first into overwhelming odds just to help someone he cared about and he didn't give a damn about who didn't like it. It wasn't love at first sight or anything that melodramatic. More like he began to grow on her. She loved training with him and trying to bring out his enormous potential, and he was fun as hell to tease.

Her feelings for Ichigo Kurosaki were a slowly, but solidly built thing. So slowly built in fact that she hadn't even realized fully they were there until she started following him around and watching out for him after he lost his shinigami abilities.

The more she watched him, the more her own feelings about him were revealed to her, and the more her head and her heart argued about it, nearly driving her insane. It was also when she began to realize just how lonely she had really been and for just how long. It was strange how she had never really realized it until then, but almost as soon as she did she began to feel the hollow ache from that loneliness grow in direct proportion to the strength of her feelings for him. She knew that she had to make up her mind once and for all and stop the internal debate before she started to fall apart.

Maybe the reason all of this had seemed to spring up so suddenly had to do with the way she had always been so tightly in control of her thoughts and emotions, and the order in which she had prioritized things in her life. In her youth, her training as the next head of her family and her Onmitsukido training had stressed the importance of pushing her own personal matters into the background and focusing on clan business and her duties first, foremost, and always.

She hadn't always done so to the satisfaction of those around her, she preferred to keep as much of her playful, free spirited attitude as she could, without it she would have gone insane long ago, she was sure. She actually had to give a lot of the credit to Kisuke for helping her to remain the way _she_ wanted to be.

When she got too far down or frustrated he always was able to get her to laugh. And when she got too high and mighty he was always glad to knock the Shihoin Princess off of her high horse and toss a little dirt at her. And if he needed help there was always Tessai and Kukaku ever eager to lend a hand.

The point was that to a certain extent she had always kept her inner most feelings and desires where love was concerned locked away in a box on a high shelf in a rarely visited corner of her soul.

In the end she went with what her gut and her heart had been telling her. She had indeed fallen in love with Ichigo. He had come into her life like a bull in a china shop, banging into stuff and knocking things over. Somewhere in all of that chaos and stomping around he had unknowingly knocked that box off of its shelf, spilling its contents all over the place.

She almost laughed out loud at the analogy. That certainly was the Way of the Strawberry alright. Subtlety was rarely involved where he was concerned.

As it turned out luck had been with her and a couple of things happened in close proximity to one another. The first was that his powers came back and he asked her to train him. He had come to realize what she already knew, that power alone wasn't enough, that he needed the skills to go with it if he wanted to truly be strong and have the ability to protect those he cared about. Power was fine, but it shouldn't be his first or only option and in its absence if he didn't have the skills, he had nothing and wouldn't be able to protect anyone.

She was proud of him for coming to that realization on his own and she gladly agreed to train him. Even without her feelings for him she would have anyway and had intended to discuss it with him. She would start from the ground up with Zanjutsu, Hoho, and Hakuda. Kido would have to wait until he could devote all of his time to it alone. She knew he would work hard and with his knack for picking things up so quickly, he would make impressive progress.

The second fortunate thing for her was that he had finally started to truly notice the opposite sex, and it seemed that he was very much noticing her in particular. Cripes, it had been necessary to give herself a mental shake of the head every so often because that attention almost made her feel like a damn teenager herself all over again.

And she did _not_ appreciate Kisuke teasing her about it. Not one bit.

They trained hard and given their respective natures, they loved it. Though she had to admit that a hard workout that got the blood pumping made it a little hard not to jump the boy on the spot, but she didn't want to scare him off just because she was getting a little horny. They had started to become pretty good friends too and he had even started to open up to her a bit. She knew it was a sign of his trust in her and she was truly proud to have it.

He admitted to her that when he first lost his powers he had been scared, though he never let on to anyone else. He worried about not being able to protect his family and his friends. He missed the presence of Zangetsu and even his Hollow inside his head.

He also felt like he had been abandoned by his friends in the Soul Society and it was obvious that he was hurt by it. He hadn't expected them to show up every week to check up on him or anything, but he hadn't expected to not see any of them at all until after his powers came back. She had told him that they had probably been under orders to keep their distance if they came to the world of the living for any reason, and not interfere in his life now that it had returned to more or less normal. That didn't take much of the sting out of it for him though.

Unfortunately she hadn't been able to return the favour and open up to him about herself. It wasn't that she didn't want to, she did and it was another sign of the strength of her attraction to him, but she simply couldn't break that ingrained habit. Not yet.

Another of the hard lessons she had to learn as heir to her clan's leadership was that revealing too much about herself was dangerous in the world of clan politics. Opponents would take any advantage they thought they could, any piece of information, no matter how small, was something that could be used against her. Her Onmitsukido training only reinforced that, ingraining that type of behaviour even deeper into her mind. As a result she rarely ever gave up anything about herself to anyone.

Even so, she found that she wanted to share that part of herself with him, the part no one else saw or knew. Maybe, if this went where she hoped it would go then she could trust him with the details of her life, with her secrets and her fears.

A month or so into their training they began to go out at least a couple of nights a week afterwards just to relax and unwind a bit. It was nothing too heavy, just a walk around the city, or a sit down at a small coffee shop. Just something where they could enjoy each others company outside of the blood and sweat of training and relax. Tonight had been no different than any other night in the two months since then.

Well, except for how the evening ended at least.

There had been no advanced planning on her part to get him into the sack, not a thought of it even. It had just been like any other evening when they went out after training. He was dressed like any average teenaged boy, sneakers, cargo pants, and a t-shirt, she wore sandals and jeans and a burgundy long sleeved blouse with only the middle three buttons done up, leaving her navel and her cleavage exposed. Made him blush.

As they walked they got the usual stares they always seemed to. Other guys jealous of him, girls jealous of her, and more than a few adults looking rather disapprovingly at the obvious age gap between them. If they only knew, and that had been one of her own major head versus heart arguments. But, when you were talking about an age gap that spanned _centuries_, it pretty much made the whole thing moot.

They had strolled through the shopping district, did a little window shopping and drank coffee at a little café they had discovered on their second outing. It was a good place to relax and talk or just watch the people go by. Relaxing was something else he needed to learn how to do because he was just too wound up and tense most of the time. He spent all of his time worrying about protecting everyone else and took no time for himself. He was a burnout case just waiting to happen.

She leaned her head back against the door frame and closed her eyes, letting the rest of the evening replay through her head.

He walked her home like he always did, which was kind of funny because if there was one woman in Karakura who was the least in need of an escort it was her. Still, she let him and didn't even tease him over it because she thought it was rather cute.

That and she kind of liked it.

After saying goodnight and as he went to leave, she acted spontaneously. She grabbed him by the neck and pulled him down to her and kissed him. Not a hungry, lust filled kiss, but a gentle lingering one that let him know that she was serious and not just playing with him. She didn't want to scare him off.

Predictably he went stiff as a board, shocked out of his head. She thought at one point he was going to pull away from her, which would have really messed her head up right at that moment, but he didn't. Finally the tension bled out of him and he let it happen.

She stopped and looked at his face and his eyes. He was shocked, stunned, and confused, and his cheeks were as red as she had ever made them before. He looked a little bit like a deer caught in the headlights of an approaching car, and his eyes kept flicking from hers to her lips.

"Yoruichi…" he managed to say in little more than a whisper.

She kissed him again and this time there was no resistance. "Your first one?" she asked. He nodded. "Sorry I didn't ask first."

"You're not just…teasing me are you?" The embarrassment of the question was evident in his voice, and there was a hint of something there that made her think he wanted this to be serious. She was hopeful anyway.

"No," she answered. A sense of relief crossed his face. "As much as I enjoy teasing you, I would never tease you like that. And I wouldn't kiss you just for the hell of it. I'm serious."

He didn't seem to know what to do next. Poor boy was so out of his element that she actually felt sorry for him. He had spent so much of his young life worrying about protecting the people he cared for, making sure he didn't lose them like he had lost his mother, that he hadn't let himself live the same kind of life as other people his age.

She grasped his hand and led him up to the apartment and inside. Lights on, shoes off, keys tossed on the table and she was glued to his lips again, backing him up against the kitchen counter. She knew she was overwhelming him, she could almost taste his fears as she felt his body tremble ever so slightly against hers, but that first kiss she had given him had lit the fire inside of her and it was heating up fast.

He was trying to return the kiss, but it wasn't working until she placed her hands on either side of his face, gently pushing in just the right spots to get him to relax enough so that his facial muscles weren't so tense. He let her hands and her lips coach him to what she wanted and soon it was feeling much more natural.

Keeping her lips to his, she grabbed the front of his shirt with both hands and back walked out of the kitchen, past the sitting room, down the hall past the water closet and the shower room and into her bedroom, pulling him along as she went. They were there before he even realized where she had led him to. She had already begun to pull his shirt off and he was stuttering and stammering under the tangle of cotton fabric, trying to make his mouth work.

"Don't you want to?" she asked as she discarded the shirt and let her hands rest on his muscular chest. The fear of him saying no that tinged her voice wasn't faked to try and goad him. It was very much real. She was afraid she had pushed too hard and was scaring him off, or that maybe he really didn't want to do this with her.

"It…it's not that," he rasped, his eyes unable to meet hers. "I…I've never done this before."

A sense of relief washed over her. "It's okay," she assured him, kissing his chest for emphasis. "It's been a couple of lifetimes since the last time I did it myself." The look on his face turned somewhat incredulous. She smirked. "Hey, I know the way I act around you might say differently, but I'm not a promiscuous woman Ichigo."

She ran her hands up his chest to his shoulders then let her fingernails trail down his arms until she reached his hands. She grasped them in hers.

"I took off your shirt, it's only fair if you take off mine."

She smirked to herself. He was the hero of the Winter War, he could take on powerful Arrancar and even Aizen himself, but he was intimidated by the thought of touching her and hesitant in his actions. She led him through it, not pushing him too much for fear of scaring him away. It had been a very long time since she had been with anyone and the feel of his sword calloused hands nervously stroking her skin inflamed her desires more than she thought it would. It wasn't like before she couldn't take any more and more or less threw him on the bed.

Neither of them lasted too long, which she expected. She collapsed on top of him, her vision swimming with black spots for a moment until she could suck in enough air. She could feel his muscular chest rapidly rising and falling against hers, could feel their hearts practically thumping against one another.

She raised up to look in his eyes and found him looking back at her in wonderment. He pushed back her long hair which had fallen over them like a waterfall when she collapsed on him. He kissed her. She felt like it was the purest, most sincere thing she had ever experienced and it left her momentarily stunned.

He wrapped his arms around her and they rolled to her left, his now softening member finally escaping her vice-like hold. They lay there like that for a while, the fatigue from the days training and from the intensity of their lovemaking slowly lulling them towards sleep.

He whispered something in her ear as he went under the sandman's spell.

"I love you, Yoruichi."

His words before dozing off were the reason she hadn't been able to sleep. She hadn't returned the sentiment, not because she didn't feel the same, she did, she could honestly admit to herself now that she loved him. She hadn't responded because she had been shocked to hear him say it.

She didn't think it was because he had been caught in the moment of losing his virginity either. She knew him well enough to know that he didn't say serious things like that lightly and he wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it. For him to say something like that, he had to really mean it.

Even so, she knew they would have to talk about it for her to be completely sure. She was caught somewhere between angst and near giddy elation. Both feelings were out of the ordinary for her, at least at the intensity levels she was experiencing right now.

What she did know was that she did indeed love him and that if he truly did love her, she knew she would be able to entrust her heart to him. It was about time that she did, time that she finally opened herself up to someone and she knew that he would never betray her heart, never break it. He wasn't the type.

She already knew the lengths he would go to just to protect people he considered to be his friends. For someone he loved…she would really hate to be on the wrong side of that fight.

She looked back to the bed again. She knew that she would do the same for him, she would protect him, heart, body and soul because she was his, and he was hers. She couldn't remember when the last time was she felt this happy or that something felt so right to her.

She stood and walked back over to the bed and looked down at her young lover. Even with everything that he had been through, the battles he had fought, the pain he had endured, he looked so innocent as he slept. Even his trademark scowl was absent for once. She smirked, there was teasing material there.

'_That's right, I'm so damn good that I fucked that scowl right off his face'._

She could hardly wait for a chance to use that one.

She laid back down beside him, brushing a stray strand of orange hair aside and watching him for a few minutes before finally closing her eyes.

"I love you too Ichigo," she whispered.

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><p>The dim green numbers of the digital clock on the dresser read 6:00 am when Ichigo began to drift back into consciousness. He felt a momentary sense of alarm at the unfamiliar nature of his surroundings. Realization and reality soon came crashing into him though when he spied brown skin and purple hair out of the corner of his eye.<p>

He was in Yoruichi's apartment.

He was in her bed. Naked, with an equally bare Yoruichi asleep beside him.

They'd had sex.

Yoruichi Shihoin.

Him.

Ichigo Kurosaki.

_He_ had had _sex_ with the freaking _Goddess of Flash!_

He didn't know whether to panic or get up and do the Snoopy dance.

He took a deep breath to gather his thoughts and calm himself down. It had all happened so fast and he wasn't entirely sure if it had all caught up to him yet. He had been taken completely by surprise, it was like he had been swept up by a wave and pulled out to sea and had just woke up on a deserted beach, wondering what the hell had happened.

That kiss had paralyzed him and he was pretty sure that if she had said good night and went inside right after that, he would still be standing out there right now with his mouth hanging open like an idiot.

And that said nothing about everything that had transpired afterward. The whole experience had kicked open the door to a well hidden little secret room deep within his heart. A place where he kept a secret, a truth that he didn't even want to reveal to himself, something that he had done his utmost to hide and bury away. He was afraid of it and what acknowledging its existence could mean for him in terms of potential pain and heartache.

He was in love with Yoruichi.

The fear and pain potential wasn't associated with being rejected by her, he had had no intention of even letting her know. The fear had been born out of his mother's death. The fear that if he got close to someone, that if he loved someone, they would be taken away from him like his mother had been. That it would be his fault for not protecting them, just like he couldn't protect his mother, and that there would be another hole ripped in his heart at the loss.

So he had resolved to bury his feelings for her deep inside. So deep that it would seem like they didn't even exist at all. It worked to a degree. He had never been the most observant when it came to the opposite sex anyway, he had other things on his mind after all, like his all consuming need to protect everyone he cared about and worrying about how he was going to do it. It had been easy most of the time to keep the feelings hidden with that as his concentration point.

It had come flaring back to him though as he saw her, Kisuke, and his father fight Aizen while he was tied up with Ichimaru. His heart nearly leapt out of his throat when he saw them all go down and saw her unconscious and draped over the top of a broken concrete wall. The despair he had already been feeling only became worse.

He re-established that isolation of his feelings towards her after he lost his powers. He kept himself at arms length from most people, including his friends because he could no longer protect them as he once did. Since trouble seemed to never be too far behind him, it was better that way.

He kept Yoruichi and the bunch at the Shoten even farther away. While he had grown used to the madness of the place, even missed it a little, it would be a bad idea to go there. It would make the reality of his lost powers even more vivid than it already was and he was far too likely to run into Yoruichi there.

When his powers came back though, it was the only logical place to go. He had thought a lot about it in the months before they returned, but he had decided that if they did he would go ask to be trained in the skills he knew he so badly needed. And he thought he had succeeded in burying his feelings for her so deeply that they wouldn't come to the surface again.

Boy, had he ever been wrong about that. They came roaring back almost as soon as he laid eyes on her.

The training was hard, she instructed him, then drove him, challenged him, until each move and each technique was burned into both his brain and his body, turning them into instinctive motions. She teased the hell out of him too, just like she always had. Oddly enough he found that he had actually missed it.

There had to have been something there, something different in the way she looked at him or the way she spoke to him. Typically for him if there was he had missed it entirely, even when she suggested that they start going out now and then after training. Learning how to relax was part of his training too she had told him.

Looking back on it now, he saw just how comfortable, how seemingly natural things had become between them. So much so that he began to open up to her about himself. His feelings for her would always be unrequited, he was sure of that, but they were still friends and he had come to trust her a great deal.

He wanted to know more about her but he never pressed too hard about it. She never seemed to want to talk about her own past very much and realistically it wasn't any of his business. If she wanted to tell him anything, she would, if not, that was okay too.

There had been no signs of anything being different last night, at least none that were obvious enough for him to see. Then all of a sudden she was kissing him and he was scared as hell.

He had never thought much about his first kiss, and certainly not that it would be with Yoruichi, and that she would be serious about it.

He had been at a complete loss as to what to do, but she seemed to be okay with leading the way. As nervous as he was, he wasn't going to fight it. He felt like an idiot though but she didn't seem to mind that she had to guide him through everything. And he knew he had been shaking, that was as embarrassing as not knowing what to do, but she never said a thing about it, didn't even tease him about it.

He had seen her naked enough times due to her teasing transformations, but it was a whole different thing here, it had been like he was really seeing her body, seeing her, for the first time. Actually touching her, and intimately so, had nearly blown his mind. The difference was like night and day.

He turned his head and looked at her as she peacefully slept beside him, turned toward him and lying on her side. He could admit it, he was in awe of her. She was so beautiful, everything about her, the way she looked, the sound of her voice, even her name. Yoruichi Shihoin had a beautiful sound to it.

He let his eyes travel over her. There was not a mark or a flaw anywhere on her soft, brown skin. Even the large tattoo on her left thigh didn't seem out of place. The long purple hued hair that trailed down her back and was splayed on the pillow around her was almost like silk and seemed to shine in the moonlight.

Her body was tight and compact, a highly tuned machine of flesh and blood, yet she still had soft, graceful curves in all the right places. He suddenly realized just how small she was. It had never hit him before, but she was a good seven or eight inches shorter than he was and she'd be lucky if she hit a hundred pounds. But he knew the power that was within that small package, he had seen her toss Yammy around like a rag doll, saw her fight against Aizen, yet something told him that he had not seen anything even close to her full power on display.

He looked to her face, seeing her soft lips parted ever so slightly as she slept. His body tingled from

his neck to his manhood at the remembrance of every place those lips had touched him. He raised his hand to his neck and felt the lump where she had left her mark. He'd have a tough time keeping that hidden, but then he was pretty sure she had known that when she did it. His old man would be all over him of course, never mind his sisters or any one else, but he found that he didn't even care.

He thought of those beautiful golden eyes. They always seemed to draw his attention. There was something about the way they seemed to shine, especially when she had that crooked 'cat that ate the canary' grin on her face. Even the intensity in them when she was serious or angry seemed to grab hold of him.

And then there was the way they had connected to his as they had sex. It was like she had been looking directly into his soul, like she had captured it with just those eyes alone. Maybe she had. He was hers now if she wanted him, he just hoped he hadn't blown it with what he said before he dozed off.

"_I love you, Yoruichi."_

She had said she was serious, but did she love him? Would she think that he really meant it, or that it was just the infatuated uttering of a boy who just got his cherry popped by a woman he found to be the most beautiful thing he had laid eyes on?

She hadn't answered his declaration and he was worried about it. He knew his feelings for her were true, he didn't just have a crush and it wasn't a temporary infatuation. The feelings were deep enough that it had allowed him to resist his fears of letting someone get close to his heart. He could have turned tail and ran last night but his feelings for her were strong enough that he resisted it.

"I meant what I said Yoruichi," he whispered to the sleeping goddess beside him. "I love you. I did even before this. I didn't think I had a chance and I was too afraid to let someone get that close to me."

"You've got more than a chance Ichigo," she said softly and sincerely as her golden eyes opened and met his.

"I-I thought you were asleep!"

"Hard to sleep when your reiatsu suddenly goes from calm to all anxious," she chided gently.

"Sorry," he sheepishly apologized.

She moved over him until her upper body covered his. She certainly did love to feel the lean muscles of his chest against hers, and she was pretty sure he wasn't upset that her breasts were squashed against him.

She slid her left hand up his right arm to his shoulder, and let her right hand stray into his hair, her fingers lazily stroking his scalp. She kissed him, just the way she did the night before. She pulled back just enough to look into his eyes, her lips very nearly still in contact with his.

"Look in my eyes and tell me Ichigo." She practically breathed the words into him.

She felt his body tense momentarily, saw the tension around his eyes as they remained locked onto one another. It left as quickly as it came and his eyes never wavered from hers.

"I love you Yoruichi."

She captured his lips again, the kiss long and deep this time and returned by him with equal fervour. She met his eyes again and as she looked deeply into them, she knew that any reservations she had had about this, any attempts to deny her heart what it wanted had been a foolish waste of time.

"I love you too Ichigo."

As their lips came together again she felt like her admission had suddenly altered her somehow, like a weight she didn't know she was carrying had suddenly fallen away. Actually it wasn't just her admission that had caused a change, hearing him tell her that he loved her had done something as well. It came from seeing the honesty in his eyes, the truth of his words being reflected there for her to plainly see.

His honest, heartfelt admission had gone straight to the core of her being and warmed it, giving her a feeling deep, deep inside that she had never felt before. It wasn't that she had never known love before in her life, she had, but this was something so much more meaningful and it struck her so deeply that she wasn't sure if she could properly put it into words, or even give it an adequate explanation for her rational mind to grasp and examine.

For Ichigo, he was feeling much the same way. To him it was like she had turned to liquid and seeped down into the cracks and crevices that made up his surface, finding her way inside and flowing into his heart and sealing the hole that had been torn open there.

In their own ways, they had locked their hearts away from the world. His heart had been locked away by a tragedy that wouldn't allow him to let anyone back in. No one had been able to open that lock and get inside and he had tried to fill that broken space with his need to protect. If he kept everyone safe, kept all of his friends and his family from harm, then maybe one day that ragged hole would close.

Her heart had been locked away by her own choice, shut off from others by the necessity of a noble's life and all it entailed. Locked away to protect it from the falseness of the declarations of others who only sought the power that was attached to her name. She would sooner hide her heart away than let it be scarred by lies and used for someone else's gain.

The weight of her duties and the time they consumed had made it easy to ignore anything her heart wanted. Like Ichigo, she was still capable of compassion and she had some great friends who meant the world to her and she would do anything for them, but there was never that one person who could open the lock she had sealed her heart with. And after so much time, it felt as if it was rusted shut.

Now those respective locks were shattered and had turned to dust. Her heart was warming to the reality of being loved by someone who meant it, someone who would never try to use her for his own gain, someone who would instead guard her heart and protect it at all costs. His heart was healing, the ragged tear in it being mended by someone who didn't need his protection, though she would have it anyway. Someone who had already done so much for him, someone he had learned to trust in a way he had never trusted anyone else.

He wrapped his left arm around her shoulders and laid his right hand against the small of her back. He couldn't get enough of this feeling, the heat of her body and her skin against his. This intelligent, insanely strong, beautiful woman could have anyone she wanted, but he was the one she was with and she said that he was the one she loved.

She broke their kiss and smiled at him. "Feels pretty good doesn't it?" she asked. "Having someone to hold and someone to hold you."

"It does," he agreed. "Better than I ever imagined it would."

"And the sex?" she teasingly asked. Predictably his face turned red. He was so adorable when he was embarrassed.

"I had no idea it would feel like that," he answered with no small amount of awe in his quite response. "Sorry I wasn't better at it though. And I feel like kind of a dork that you had to guide me through so much."

"No one is an expert their first time," she said. "Or their first several times," she added, getting his face to turn an even brighter shade of red as that thought sunk in. "I expected you to be nervous and I didn't expect either of us to last very long. No need to feel bad about anything Ichigo, it's all part of the experience." She gave him that infamous smirking look of hers. "Besides, you'll get plenty of practice."

She didn't think it was possible for him to turn that shade of red. Hmm, Strawberry indeed. Maybe she should let up a little before he burst a blood vessel.

"I just hope you're not upset with me for pretty much dragging you along," she said, a more serious tone to her voice. "I took your first kiss and then I took your first time. I didn't exactly ask or give you a whole lot of chance to say no."

"I'm glad it happened the way it did," he said honestly. "Because things would have stayed exactly the same otherwise. There's no way I ever would have been able to tell you how I felt about you on my own. I kept trying to convince myself that burying what I felt was for the best."

"And I kept coming up with reasons to convince myself it was all wrong," she said. "But in the end I guess both of our hearts got what they wanted."

"Glad they did."

She stifled a yawn and leaned her forehead against his. "Let's have the rest of this conversation later. I'm still tired and it is way too early to be awake yet. Especially when neither of us has anything to do or anywhere to be."

"No argument from me," he said. He was still plenty tired himself and it wasn't often that he got to sleep in.

She slid her body off of his so that most of her weight was back on the bed, though she remained close. Her body was still turned to his and her right arm was draped over him. He laid his left hand over hers.

"Don't think I'm going to take it easy on you now in your training," she warned with a smirk. "If anything I'll be twice as hard on you now." She ran a finger across one of the scars on his chest. "Don't want you getting too many more of these."

The words of protest on his lips died when she said that last part. He knew that she lived by the axiom that the more you bled in training, the less you bled in combat. He couldn't argue with that. And it was her way of saying that she didn't want him getting seriously hurt.

"So that means that you'll be sweating just as much as I will be, right Kitty-sensei?" he smirked back.

She laughed. "Kitty-sensei…I like that. And yes I will be sweating just as much as you, especially since I know you like seeing me all wet like that." She gave his once again blushing cheek a quick kiss. "Besides, it's past time that I got myself back into the kind of shape I was in when I led the Onmitsukido and the Second Division."

For a moment it seemed almost like he stopped breathing.

"She's going to kill me isn't she?" he asked. It took her a moment to catch what he meant. "When she finds out about us Sui-Feng is going to hunt me down and kill me in my sleep."

Now there was a problem she hadn't thought about. "Don't worry, I'll handle my Little Bee." An evil little grin crossed her lips. "Who knows, maybe I can convince to her join us for a threesome."

Three, two, one.

"WHAT!"

Just like that, new teasing material. "She is cute don't you think?"

"Yeah, like a nest of angry hornets is cute!"

"Especially when she gets all nervous and blushes," she continued, ignoring him. "Just like you."

"I wouldn't know. And I am not cute!"

"Wouldn't you like to see her naked, tight little body laying on the other side of you?"

"Can't hear you. Sleeping." And the pitch of his voice _did not_ go up when he said it.

"Ooh, I can talk to her at the next SWA meeting. Wait until they all hear that I'm the one who landed you."

"Evil cat-woman," he muttered. "And I thought you loved me."

"Hmmm…maybe some of them will want to join us too."

"That's it, I'm having Kisuke open a garganta and I'm spending the week in Hueco Mundo!"

"Oh, want to go and see if your friend Nel has returned to adult size yet?" she teased in a horribly suggestive tone of voice.

"I thought you wanted to go back to sleep?"

"Fine," she sighed with great exaggeration. "Besides, if your face gets any redder you'll have a stroke, my perverted little Strawberry."

He wanted to protest that. _She_ was the damn pervert, but if he said it then this would go on forever and he would only get dragged in deeper and deeper. And he really did want to get a little more sleep.

He just knew that as soon as he did he was going to see himself and her, and Sui-Feng, and the whole SWA (hopefully minus Yachiru because that was just fricking _wrong_), and Nel, all piled together in a sweaty, sticky, slippery mass. Hell, why not throw in Kukaku, Rukia, Orihime and Tatsuki too.

Oh doom on him.

"Sweet dreams," she drawled knowingly as she cuddled up to him.

'_Evil, evil, evil little neko demon,' _he thought. He smiled. '_But she's my evil little neko demon.'_

* * *

><p>AN: Personally I think it turned out pretty well. I hope you all enjoyed it and I hope you leave a review.<p>

I also included and omake, first time I have ever done one and I had to do something with this idea, it just wouldn't leave me alone.

***Omake***

It was after midday when Ichigo was finally on his way home. There was a spring in his step and a smile on his face that only a recently deflowered teenaged boy was capable of. It had been a long time since he had felt so good and so carefree, it was great.

As he neared the door, he finally snapped out of it and went on alert. Quietly grasping the door handle he turned it, then in a burst of action shoved the door open and then quickly shut it again. He was rewarded with a loud crashing thump against the door and a cry of pain.

He met resistance as he opened the door again, his crazy father was lying in a crumpled heap in the entry way. As he pushed the door open he gracelessly shoved him out of the way with it.

"Well done…Ichigo," the crumpled form of his father managed to speak.

"Crazy old man," Ichigo muttered.

"Ichi-nii," Yuzu's worried voice chimed in. "I was so worried when you didn't come home."

"Sorry," he apologized. "I should have called. Training ran late and I was tired so I decided to sleep over." He hated to lie to her about what he had been doing, but he wasn't about to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.

"Don't lie to your darling little sister you hoodlum!" Isshin nearly shouted as he suddenly appeared beside Ichigo, good as new after slamming into the door. "I know what you were doing and I have evidence to prove it!"

Ichigo felt something suddenly get yanked out of his back pocket. Much to his horror he now had the sight of his father prancing around like a monkey, waving around a pair of black, lace panties. He thought back to not a half hour ago when he left Yoruichi's apartment. As they kissed before he left she had shoved her hand in his back pocket. He thought she had just been copping a feel, but apparently she had been giving him a little parting gift…and anticipating his usual confrontation with his nut bar father.

Evil little neko demon indeed.

"Out stealing women's panties Ichi-nii?" Karin drawled.

He nearly choked. "No! I was not out stealing panties!"

"Haha! Your idiot brother has finally become a man then!" Isshin proudly proclaimed.

Yuzu was wide eyed. "Y-you spent the night with a woman? Oh Ichi-nii how could you?"

"Huh," Karin mused. "I would have believed the panty thief bit to be more likely than you getting laid Ichigo."

"WHAT!" He was surrounded by evil. And crazy.

Isshin wrapped his arm around his shoulders. "And you have a nice hickey there too my son. And just how did you get that eh?" he asked in his usual goofy manner.

Ichigo smirked. Time for a little payback. "Got bit by a cat." He turned and looked his father in the eye. "A little. Black. Cat."

Isshin seemed to freeze. His eyes went wide and his mouth gaped open like a gasping fish. "Y…you mean…you…and Yoruichi…"

Ichigo just grinned like the aforementioned cat.

Isshin looked at the lacy lingerie in his hand, then back at his son. "It's not fair!" he shouted, and took off running.

"Hey!" Ichigo yelled as he took off after his lunatic father. "Give those back."

Yuzu went after them, trying to get them to stop, red faced all the while over what they were fighting over and just how Ichigo got them.

Karin just shook her head. She spotted something out of the corner of her eye and turned to see a little black cat sitting on the windowsill.

She never knew a cat could smile like that.

* * *

><p>Again, if you want the lemon version go to:<p>

5Horse **dot** deviantart **dot** com

I like the lemon version better myself, it makes the story feel more complete.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Bleach is owned by Tite Kubo. He created this world, I'm just playing in it.

Finally, the second, and **final** chapter is here. Considering how much bloody hell I went through getting this one written, I don't even want to try for any more. As if trying to live up to the success of the first chapter wasn't hard enough, the stress bug decided to bite my ass _hard_. So bad in fact I nearly gave up writing altogether.

It took me no less than four false starts, with everything I had written getting completely nuked. I spent three months with no more than three pages of this that was worth keeping and I very nearly threw in the towel and gave up. But, I sat myself down one day, gave myself the mental equivalent of a slap in the face and went over all of the reasons that I like to write, went over how I go about writing, and managed to get myself back in working order and knocked the rest of this out in about a month.

Just as I was wrapping it up, the 'purge' began. So, instead of having a cow over it, I knew what the rules were when I posted it after all and should have done it before, I did what an author does...I edited. I edited the lemon out of Chapter 1, and posted the lemon version on other sites that allow it, and I edited it out of Chapter 2 as well. No problem at all. Story should have been complianty in the first place. My bad there.

The sites that the lemon versions are available at will be listed at the bottom of this chapter as well as on my profile page.

I hope that this chapter at least comes close to the awesome response I got, and continue to get for the first one. I tried to come up with something that kept with the theme of it.

Hopefully you will be kind enough to leave a review.

And if you have questions or commentary, I would love to respond to them. But that is a little hard to do if you leave such in an unsigned review. There were a number of reviews I would have liked to have answered to but couldn't because I had no way of linking back to the reviewer.

Any way, here's the second chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

* * *

><p><strong>Unlocked Hearts<strong>

_**Chapter 2:**_

Facing someone down with tense uncertainty surging throughout her being was not a position Sui-Feng was used to finding herself in. She had faced numerous hollows and other disreputable beings without blinking, hell, she had faced the Espada Baraggan, even after she had lost her arm, with less trepidation than what was coursing through her veins at this specific moment.

It took a supreme effort of will to keep the shaking of her body close to unnoticeable, and somehow she just couldn't manage to lift her head and make her eyes meet the object of her nervousness as it stood a mere six feet away from her.

Six feet across the expanse of Lady Yoruichi's dimly lit bedroom in her apartment in Karakura.

Six feet away from the one who had somehow managed to get inside of her heart and made her feel this way.

Six feet away from Ichigo Kurosaki.

Fear and desire, need and nerves, they all flooded her insides with a torrent of butterflies that threatened to send her fleeing back to the Soul Society as fast as shunpo would take her. She asked herself again for the hundredth, the _thousandth_ time, how had she let things get this far? How, _why_, had she agreed to what Lady Yoruichi had kept proposing to her over the last two months?

Why had she agreed for the first time in her life to let her heart have what it wanted, to the complete disagreement of her head and its cold, hard, unfeeling mindset?

The answer was actually pretty simple really. It was because buried deep down inside of her, under all of those layers of ice and cold, hard stone, there was something that _was not _Sui-Feng. Something that _was not _the cold, hard assassin tempered by clan driven obligations and responsibilities and feelings of rage filled betrayal. Something that _was not _the hardcore Captain of the Second Division, but something much closer to the girl who had existed over a hundred years ago, the girl who became buried in that cold darkness when the lone bright spot in her life had suddenly left her.

Shaolin.

That was the part of her that wanted to know warmth and love and the experiences of a life beyond the laws and the rules, the clan trappings and the assassin's blade. It was the part of her that had found so much comfort in Lady Yoruichi's presence, in the friendship that was so important to her when the Shihoin Princess had left and she fell into such a dark, cold, and lonely place.

She had buried that part of herself so deeply that she had been sure it had ceased to exist, just as she had always been instructed that it should. From the very first day she had ever laid eyes on the then soon to be head of the Shihoin family, her future had been decided for her. Anything that resembled the normal ways of a young girl's life were stripped from her by the unyielding obligations set out for her by her clan.

There had been little in the way of warmth or love around her as she trained and grew. They were things that an assassin and a bodyguard did not need, they were a detriment and to require such was a sign of weakness. Only her training and the honing of her skills were important, all else, anything that spoke of a 'normal' life was a useless and unneeded distraction and the worthless trappings of a lesser calling.

Thus her entire world became a strict tutored classroom and the cold, harsh lessons of the training hall. She learned all of the timeless techniques for taking lives and how to do so silently, and she learned how to fight with every single lesson being beaten relentlessly into her tender flesh until they had become second nature to her.

The pressure on her was enormous. The stresses from her training, the expectations of the clan in maintaining their pride and honour as loyal servants to the House of Shihoin. Topping it all was the ironclad consequence of failure. If she failed to gain entrance into the Onmitsukido, she would be disowned and exiled in disgrace from the clan.

She succeeded, but despite all of her training her skills were raw and she had little experience and was untested in their application. More times than she liked to think of it was Lady Yoruichi that ended up protecting her during a battle rather than the other way around. Be it her inexperience or the severe case of nerves she always seemed to catch around the Onmitsukido leader, she felt like a failure, felt that she was woefully inadequate in fulfilling her duty. She was afraid that she was letting her mentor down and that she would be removed from the Shihoin heir's personal guard at any moment for being so useless to her.

But Lady Yoruichi was always there with that teasing smile, and of course the teasing that came with it, waving off her concerns and trying to get her to lighten up and relax. This woman who she looked up to so much, who she idolized, and who was so far above her that she should not have even been able to see her, was the first and only friend she had ever had.

That friendship began to reawaken the buried part of herself and allowed her to feel warm inside for the first time in years. Someone actually cared about her and not just the role she had been groomed for. It was almost overwhelming to have someone truly care about her, little Shaolin Feng, and not the would be assassin and bodyguard Sui-Feng. For the one to quell her loneliness and show her such concern to be Lady Yoruichi herself, it just made her admire the woman all the more and made those feelings so deeply important to her.

And that was why it hurt so very badly when she left.

That night under the moonlight and the cherry blossoms, when Lady Yoruichi had found her distraught and beating herself up for her perceived failures, when she had calmed her down and lay with her head in her lap as they watched the stars through the gently falling pink petals, she said they would be together forever.

Then she disappeared without a word and she was crushed. It literally felt as if her soul had been shredded and left in tatters. In the immature state of her own seldom known emotions, she was overwhelmed and her mind and heart broke. Such a sense of betrayal and so much anger, it became her only true emotion and it would burn her from the inside out for the next hundred years.

Early on, there were times where in private she would break down and cry, demanding to know from her empty room why Lady Yoruichi had left her. Why had she been left behind by the one she thought so much of and who was everything she wanted to become? Why had she been abandoned by the only friend she had ever had? Why had she aided those accused of horrible crimes and left her here all alone to try and make sense of it?

The breakdowns soon became non existent as her anger relentlessly drove her, allowing her to feel little else. She hid behind a veneer of seething anger and righteous justice, following the rules and laws to the letter. Those laws and rules were unwavering and constant, never straying from their intent and meaning and she followed them blindly so she wouldn't have to see or think or feel anything else.

She trained incessantly, abusing her body until it gave out and then pushing on further. She would become stronger than the one who had tossed her aside as if she were nothing. She would become better than her, surpass her in every way possible.

If Yoruichi Shihoin should ever show her face in the Soul Society again, she would be the one to bring her down. She would return to her a measure of the pain she had been left with. She would utterly defeat her, break her, and leave her helpless before she threw her in a cold, dark cell and left her alone to rot.

When that day did come she soon discovered how arrogant, prideful, and immature she had really been. Not once in a hundred years had she ever stopped to think and look at things from Lady Yoruichi's perspective. She had never considered just how long she had known Kisuke and that she knew he would not do what he had been accused of. She never considered that she would undoubtedly go to the aid of her friend. She never once considered that Central 46 could possibly be wrong and that Kisuke Urahara had been telling the truth.

All that she had known or considered was that she had been badly hurt and she lashed out like a wounded animal. Selfishly she had ignored all else and none of it came to her until it all crashed down upon her battered body as she lay on the ground at Lady Yoruichi's feet, crying and pleading, '_Why didn't you take me with you?'_.

In the aftermath of that day and as she readily accepted Lady Yoruichi back into her life, much to Suzumebachi's loud displeasure, she soon found something else that began to catch her interest in a way that she couldn't explain and had never expected to happen.

Ichigo Kurosaki.

As Lady Yoruichi told her about him, she could see that there was something in her mentor's tone and her mannerisms that told her she had some form of interest in the boy. The first spark of jealousy and something else she couldn't identify at the time lit up within her as she decided that this ryoka bore keeping an eye on.

And if he _ever_ dared to do anything untoward to Lady Yoruichi…

Keeping an eye of sorts on him hadn't been all that hard to do. Trouble seemed to gladly follow him everywhere and he was involved in nearly every incident that cropped up. And quite often when he came to the Seireitei he was accompanied by Lady Yoruichi, which meant that she had plenty of opportunity to be around him and observe the enigma that everyone seemed to be so drawn too.

The major turning point for her and the realization of her own feelings towards him though, came on the day that Lady Yoruichi practically floated into a Women's Association meeting with a smile on her face and an aura about her that she had never felt before. It was the day that she announced that she had netted the recently re-empowered Strawberry for herself and that it was serious.

Immediately her jealousy surged and her mind was filled with images of the orange haired Vizard forcing himself upon the dark skinned beauty, (an utterly absurd notion that her jealous and indignant imagination completely missed), pawing her like some demented, hormonal beast. Hearing that they had sex, as Matsumoto of course fished for all the juicy details, made her see red and she was ready to go to Karakura at that moment and introduce him to the business end of Suzumebachi.

But then the telling of the story finally cut through her rage. Lady Yoruichi had initiated it all. She had guided the shy and somewhat scared teen through everything, fearing all along that she was pushing too much and risking losing him because of it, something that would have crushed her if she had messed it up and sent him running from her.

That was when Sui-Feng realized something else, something she had been trying to deny for quite some time because she didn't see how it could ever be possible.

She had feelings of her own for the empowered human.

For quite some time she had experienced a strange feeling around him, but she had never known what it was. Not surprising really considering how emotionally stunted and inexperienced she was with her own feelings. When your emotional default setting was anger because it was so much more familiar than anything else, it made it easy to push away the feelings you didn't understand and couldn't figure out.

With the meeting effectively derailed, she went back to her office. If they weren't going to discuss SWA business, she had better things to do, being her excuse. True, she had enough paperwork on her desk to keep her busy for a few hours but she was unable to focus on it. Her hands sporadically clenched and opened against the surface of her desk as her thoughts churned around in her head.

Why did she feel as if she had just lost something? Was it because she might see less of Lady Yoruichi than she did now because of her relationship with Kurosaki, or was it because her own feelings for him were stronger than even she knew? If that were the case then how could she feel like she was losing something if she had never had it to begin with?

When her mind drifted to imagined scenes of the young human and her mentor in the throes of passion, why did she find herself wishing it was her? And when the woman wrapped around him and crying out in ecstasy became her, why couldn't she make those imagined scenes stop?

Why didn't she _want _it to stop?

"_Not thinking about sticking my Strawberry with your stinger, are you my Little Bee?"_

She should have counted on Lady Yoruichi showing up, but she had been too preoccupied with her troubled musings. She hadn't even known the woman had arrived, and through the window no less, until she spoke and nearly sent her flying out of her chair in surprise when she did.

They talked for a long while after that with Lady Yoruichi telling her how she had come to gain such feelings for the young human, how she had been lonely herself for a long time yet was afraid to give her heart to someone. She told her how those feelings allowed her to try getting close to him and how it unlocked her heart.

She had never known that her mentor had feelings like that locked up inside her, part of her blind worship of the woman she supposed making it impossible for her to see that she had the same feelings, wants and desires as everyone else. Wants and desires that she was beginning to realize that she herself had.

As their conversation went on she began to feel more and more of a sense of loneliness within herself. Not so much anymore at the thought of not being able to see Lady Yoruichi as much now, the dark skinned woman assured her that she would still be around just as much. She really wanted to make up for the time they had lost after she left and to try and make up for the pain she had caused her. That came as a very welcome surprise to her.

The majority of the lonely feeling she was having was that same sense of having lost something that she had experienced before. She tried to tell herself again how foolish that was since she hadn't had anything to lose. Yes, she had gained feelings for Kurosaki, but she had never acted upon them. Hell, was there even a chance that she ever would have? She knew instantly that the answer to that was no. She would have just buried the feelings and worked herself to the point of exhaustion until she forgot about it and moved on. She probably still would. Being lonely was something she was used to after all.

Or at least that was her thinking until Lady Yoruichi said something that completely blew that idea to pieces, never to be put back together again.

'_You should join us some time.'_ Her face wore that all too familiar look of mischief. _'I know you like him too Little Bee, and I'm not against sharing him with you. He's inexperienced, but he's a fast learner.'_

She turned what must have been a very unhealthy shade of red and lost the ability to speak. That didn't effect Suzumebachi however.

'_Do it!'_ the little zanpakuto spirit yelled within her head. _'I'll take back and apologize for everything mean thing I have ever said about her if you just say yes! Do it! Say yes! Doooo iiiitt!'_

The vehement reaction of her zanpakuto startled her back to her senses and she found Lady Yoruichi regarding her with an amused look, as if she knew exactly what had just happened.

'_I'll let you think about it for a while,'_ she said as she got up and started out the window. _'I'm still trying to convince _him_ how much fun it would be.'_

From that point on, every time she saw either of them, but especially Ichigo, she would get butterflies in her stomach. Yoruichi would tease them both and they would both freak out accordingly. For a while she actually was angry at Kurosaki, mistaking some of his refusals and denials as a personal slight against her, as if she wasn't good enough somehow, or unattractive to him. It hurt a little as well, until she found out that she had been reading him completely wrong.

By accident, she overheard a conversation between him and Lady Yoruichi. It turned out that he was just as freaked out by the woman's attempts to get them into the sack together as she was. Through much teasing by her former mentor he finally admitted that he did like her, that he thought she was pretty and that her tight, athletic build actually turned him on.

Lady Yoruichi's reaction to his admissions was anything but what she would have expected.

'_I told you Strawberry,'_ she said to him with a large grin plastered on her face. _'I told you that you'd like my cute Little Bee. And she likes you too, even if she doesn't show it.'_

Upon hearing that, she had felt her face heat up so much she had been sure it was about to burst into flames.

'_Why have you been so insistent about this Yoruichi?' _he had asked her. '_I can see this isn't something you're pushing for just for the fun of it. Why do you want this to happen so much?'_

The very same question had been going through Sui-Feng's head too.

'_Because I care about her just as much as I care about you,' _the shape shifter answered seriously._ 'I want to see her smile and see her be happy and feel some of what I've been fortunate enough to feel with you. I want to share that with her. I want her to feel what it's like to be with someone who cares about her and can get through that hard shell she has around her and let her feel something besides her anger and hurt. She deserves more than that in her life. You must feel that way too, at least a little, or else you wouldn't have finally said yes.'_

That caused her to very nearly fall on her backside in shock. She had missed that part of the conversation.

He sighed. _'You're right. It just feels kind of weird though and I feel guilty for what I feel towards her.'_

She kissed him. '_Any other guy would jump at the chance to have two women,'_ she teased.'_You don't need to feel guilty Ichigo, it is possible to have feelings for more than one person you know. I know I've badgered you a lot but I would never think of trying to set her up with someone else because I know I can trust you with her heart just like I trust you with mine. I know you would never hurt her.'_

She was stunned and speechless, and it was some time later as she was sitting in the dark within her living quarters that her mind was finally able to catch up to it. She had seen how happy Lady Yoruichi was and how much she really seemed to love Ichigo. But to hear that she cared about her just as much, and to hear that Ichigo seemed to have some feelings for her too…it was almost too much.

She honestly didn't know how to react. She knew that she should probably be deliriously happy, but she found herself stuck in a no man's land of emotions, not sure which way to go or what to do. The cold, cynical side of her was fighting hard against the softer side of her that wanted this so much.

Over the next couple of weeks, Shaolin began to slowly win out over Sui-Feng in the internal struggle as she spent more time around them. Training with them, sharing meals, or just sitting and talking, laughing with them even of all things, it just felt too right to her. It felt good.

The day she caught them having sex beside the hot spring in their training cavern clinched it forever. The sight of them together, the sounds coming from them as she watched, mesmerized and only barely aware of her increasing arousal and the growing dampness between her thighs…she wished it was her there screaming in pleasure as he tasted her womanhood. She wished it was her crying out in pleasure as he grasped her hips and took her from behind. She wished it was her who lay sweaty and writhing in orgasmic bliss beneath him on the edge of the pool.

She was sure she had set a new speed record for shunpo as she raced back to her quarters and locked herself in the bath. She very nearly tore her clothes off as she unashamedly let her hands roam her body in an attempt to put out the fire that had been lit within her due to her unintended voyeurism. She had never had a feeling like this hit her so strongly before.

It was quite some time before she succeeded and was able to put the lusty visions of what she had seen out of her mind and begin to process just how intensely she had been affected by it. As she lay soaking in her tub, watching the moon outside the high window of her private bath, she smiled, a real, genuine smile, and she uttered three words.

'_You win, Shaolin.'_

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><p>Ichigo could identify with the nervousness that the woman standing six feet away from him was obviously feeling, he was nervous enough himself, feeling almost like it was his first time all over again. Mainly it was because this woman wasn't Yoruichi. She wasn't the woman he had given his heart to and who had given hers to him in return.<p>

He had finally passed the stage of feeling like it was wrong and accepted it. It wasn't like he was stepping out on Yoruichi after all, hell, the whole thing had been her idea and she had been relentless in its pursuit. That had thrown him just as much as the fact that she had actually been serious about the whole thing. It actually took quite a while for him to finally get an explanation out of his little neko demon as to why it was so important to her.

She still didn't speak freely yet about her past, still didn't tell much about herself, and it took several weeks and a lot of stubborn behaviour on his part to get her to fully explain why she wanted this to happen so badly. She told him about Sui-Feng's harsh upbringing and the expectations that had been placed on her, the pressure to succeed or be disowned by her clan. It made his blood boil to think that her own family would treat her like that, that they would put their position and status ahead of her life.

She told him that back then Sui-Feng reminded her very much of herself when she was at that same stage of her life. Just like Sui-Feng had been so afraid of failing her, she had been afraid of failing those around her, that she would never be good enough or strong enough to take over leadership of the Shihoin Clan and lead the Onmitsukido.

She remembered too well how painful that uncertainty was and how scared she had been. When she saw that in Sui-Feng she couldn't help but take the girl under her wing, befriend her, and try to help her find her way.

It hurt her to leave her behind, but she couldn't abandon Kisuke and Tessai when she knew they were being railroaded. She could no more have ignored their plight than he could have if any of his friends or family were in trouble.

She had thought about taking Sui-Feng with her, but what kind of a life would that have been for her? Living in exile and most likely being constantly hunted by their former brethren was no life for the young girl, she had suffered enough already.

Unfortunately she underestimated just how much her leaving would hurt the girl and that she would never really get over it. When she explained it to him he could see just how deeply it had hurt her when she discovered how her leaving had affected her former protégé.

The reasons she had given him were pretty much what he had thought. Ever since she had first suggested it to him with any level of actual seriousness he had been thinking about it, gathering the little pieces of her past with the current Second Division Captain that she occasionally gave out and piecing them together in his head until a theory started to form.

Even then, he hadn't been quite able to sense just how much Sui-Feng truly meant to her until she finally told him after he gave in and admitted that he did indeed like the girl. The expression on his lover's face became clear and easily read for once on the subject and he began to understand that this was deeply important and a very serious thing for her.

That made it become serious for him then as well and even more so when she told him that she trusted him with her former protégé's heart, knowing that he would never hurt the already wounded girl.

Yoruichi wanted him to unlock Sui-Feng's heart, just like he had unlocked hers and as she had unlocked his. Considering just how profound that had been for the both of them, he knew that he could not turn her down.

So, somehow his crazy cat-girl girlfriend managed to convince the work obsessed Captain to take a couple of weeks off, knowing her she probably talked to Old Man Yamamoto and convinced him to make it an order. For the better part of a week they had spent a lot of time together, mostly the three of them, but there were several instances where it was just him and Sui-Feng.

There was the usual sparring sessions, but also a lot of touring around the city, taking in the sights and any amusements that caught their eye. At first she had tried to keep up her frosty, no nonsense demeanour, but after being caught actually enjoying herself a couple of times she finally gave it up and actually began to relax. Tonight had been a good night in that regard.

It was a pleasant, warm evening and they were dressed accordingly. Yoruichi in a sleeveless purple blouse and denim cut offs, he in cargo shorts and a button up tropical shirt, and Sui-Feng in cut offs and a wide-necked pale yellow shirt over a black tank top. She had recently even cut off the long braids she used to wear and had let her hair grow a little longer. He thought it made her look younger than she already did, though part of that could be due to the absence of the hard, severe look she always wore.

After dinner they went to a small festival at one of the riverside parks. Some local bands were going to play and there would be fireworks afterwards. Chad's band was actually one of the groups there so it was no surprise that they ran into several of his friends.

Chad was polite and of few words as always, and Uryuu was civil if not a little cold considering his feelings about shinigami. Keigo was his usual spastic self but luckily Mizuiro managed to reign him in before physical violence was needed to restore order.

Orihime and Tatsuki…well that had become an awkward and difficult relationship. Typically, he had been too dense to realize that Orihime had been in love with him until Yoruichi explained that to him along with a smack on the head. Needless to say the girl had been hurt when he finally told everyone about him and Yoruichi.

While Orihime continued to be friends with both him and Yoruichi, it was clear that the hurt was still there, lessening, but still present. Tatsuki though, she had been very angry with him and had socked him one since she knew Orihime never would. There had been something else there too in her reaction, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

While he could now in hindsight see Orihime's behaviour around him for what it had been, and he had to ask himself how he could have been so extremely dense as to not have clued in, he didn't recall the same from Tatsuki, but she shared a shadow of the same look in her eyes as was in Orihime's when she looked at him now.

Hime of course was polite in her greeting, while Tatsuki seemed to have caught something from the Quincy and was a little cold. With a wink, Yoruichi latched onto the two girls and pulled them just out of hearing range and started talking to them. Whatever she was saying, it soon had Orihime blushing and smiling, looking happier than he had seen her in a while. Tatsuki looked like she was about to erupt.

'_What on earth is she up to now?'_ he had asked.

'_Are you sure you want an answer to that question?'_ Sui-Feng had asked him. He almost did a double take. It wasn't that long ago at she would have chastised him, and possibly threatened his life, for disrespecting her former mentor.

'_Probably not,'_ he sighed. _'Because no matter what, she's going to do it anyway, despite what either of us might say.'_

Suddenly, Tatsuki went from near eruption, to waving her hands around like she was denying something and her face was as red as Orihime's. A moment later Orihime was hugging her best friend, all excited about whatever had just been said. Yoruichi simply turned toward him, grinning like the cat that just ate the canary, before wrapping an arm around each of the two girls and wandering off with them to watch the show.

'_Oh doom on me,'_ he thought, sighing in resignation before shoving the incident into a little box in his mind to be revisited later. There was no advantage in dwelling on it now, whatever she was up to would happen anyway and there was no point in him getting distracted by it and ruining the evening. He knew he'd find out soon enough.

Before he knew it, he had offered his hand to Sui-Feng like he always did to Yoruichi. Hesitantly she took it and he led her to a good spot to view both the concert and the fireworks from. Her hand rarely left his for the rest of the night. At some point in the evening she ended up sitting in front of him, between his long legs with his arms wrapped loosely around her as she leaned back against him. She had been tense for a few moments at first but soon relaxed again.

After the show and the fireworks, they indulged in a snack from one of the vendors before walking back to Yoruichi's apartment, hand in hand again. She had enjoyed herself. While the music and its style was something totally new to her, she had enjoyed the experience more than she ever thought she would. And the fireworks had been well worth the wait.

As they neared the apartment, they both began to tense up a little and by the time they had reached the stairs leading up, all conversation had ceased and they simply stood looking at each other, both trying to decide what to do next. Surprisingly, she made the first move. She went up a couple of stairs to even the height difference, leaned toward him, and kissed him.

Actually, it was more like she stiffly smashed her lips against his with near bruising intensity, but it was the thought that counted. As inexperienced as she was, even she knew that hadn't been a very good attempt and he could see the varying emotions welling up within her.

Before any one of them could take root, he leaned in and kissed her while bringing his hands up to caress her face the way Yoruichi had done to him a few months ago in order to make him relax. He must have done it right because in a few seconds there was less resistance and the stiffness left her.

After a few seconds he pulled back and he had to suppress a chuckle. The feared assassin and leader of the Onmitsukido stood before him blushing, her eyes all but closed and her lips still slightly parted and looking every bit like a teenaged girl who had just received her first kiss. Which wasn't all that far off the mark really. She may have been a Captain, but he doubted if she was much older than Rukia was, and without the severe look on her face or the murderous aura rolling off of her, she certainly looked the part.

It took a few seconds for the lack of contact to register and for her to open her eyes. She looked at him, almost as if she were sizing him up. A moment later she seemed to come to a decision of some sort that was to her satisfaction. She placed her hands on his shoulders and moved in to kiss him again.

'_Let me try again,'_ she said.

She did much better this time.

It didn't take long for things to heat up, and soon they were doing an awkward shuffle up the stairs as they tried to climb them without their lips parting. The strange dance continued through the apartment, stopping here and there as they bumped into the counter, the table, and the walls in a number of places, the situation made all the more contortionistic by their difference in height.

Finally stumbling into the bedroom, and into the dresser which at least gave Ichigo the chance to flick on the dim light that resided on top of it, they drifted into their current position, six feet away from one another.

She looked beautiful in the dim light, but also so vulnerable in this situation that was so alien to her. Her left arm was wrapped across her stomach, as if she could physically still the fluttering within, while her right hand toyed with the frayed ends of her denim cut offs. The reality of the moment had settled heavily upon her.

"Sui-Feng," he called softly, causing her to startle slightly. She looked up to see him wearing a gentle smile. "We don't have to do anything at all if you don't want to. I'm not going to force something on you that you don't want or aren't ready for."

"I do want this," she said, her voice low. "I just…I don't know…I've never done this before." She almost sounded as if she were ashamed along with being a bit frustrated with herself.

"It wasn't that long ago that I felt exactly like you do right now," he confessed, a tinge of mirth in his voice. "Turned out that it wasn't nearly as scary as I thought, but that's just me." He stepped closer and sat on the corner of the bed, he could now look her in the eye without looking down, something he felt at that moment to be a very important distinction. "So if you decide you don't want to go any further, I understand, and it won't change a thing about the way I feel. I really do like you Sui-Feng, and it's been fun hanging out and getting to know you a little and I'd like to get to know you more."

His words hit her deeply and made a fresh wave of warmth spread throughout her. She thought she had been wooden and awkward all week, but there was no deceit in his voice or in his eyes, there was just a gentle warmth there. He had honestly enjoyed the time they had spent together.

Part of her wished that he would take charge, just pull her to him and take the decision out of her hands altogether. But she had gotten to know him just well enough to know that he would never do that because he would feel like he was forcing her. While some women may find fault with his lack of forward behaviour, she saw it as a sign of respect and that meant a lot to her. He was giving her the chance to decide for herself without pressure and giving her an out if she wanted to take it.

How many men that she had observed over the years would do the same once the evening had reached the point that this one had? How many would think that they were owed something right now and would try to take it if it wasn't given?

Unfortunately the nature of her duties had allowed her to see the worst in a lot of people and had added even more of a cynical edge to her already sour and angry demeanour. But Ichigo Kurosaki had, with out even trying, cut right through that armoured layer she surrounded herself with just as easily as if it were a hollow before the might of his Zangetsu. He had cut into the heavy layer of ice and stone that had buried her inner self for so long and he was making her feel things she never thought she would.

As she looked at him right now, with that warm smile on his face and that soft look in his eyes, she felt that long buried part of herself finally make its way to the surface to stand atop the ice and stone that had imprisoned it for so long. Tonight wasn't just about her deciding whether or not to have sex with him, it was about something so much deeper than that.

It was about taking a huge step in discovering who she really was, in forging an entirely new identity for herself. She could become who she wanted to be, not who her clan expected her to be, not someone who was shaped completely and totally by the expectations of others. Her world didn't have to be so cold and lonely, and it didn't have to be coloured in straight up black and white anymore. She was beginning to see that there was something beyond that.

She looked to him, feeling her decision make itself. She had enjoyed her time with him this week, even when it was just the two of them when Lady Yoruichi would drift off to give them that time. Even being awash in the overflow of his reiatsu had become a comfortable thing. She had enjoyed holding his hand and being loosely held by him as they sat listening to the music in the park. She had enjoyed kissing him and feeling his strong hands on her shoulders or softly pressed against her back as they did the awkward dance through the apartment.

Still nervous, but much more sure of things, she stepped toward him and into the gap between his knees as he sat. "This is what I want," she told him. There was a more assured look in her eyes now that was cutely at odds with the flushing of her cheeks.

"Sui-Feng…" he began.

She shook her head. "That's a code name I inherited from my grandmother," she said quietly. "Sui-Feng is the part of me that is the assassin and the Special Forces commander who everyone fears. The part of me that was so angry and fought so hard against what the part of me that isn't Sui-Feng has wanted all along."

He took her hands in his. "This other part of you…what's her name?"

She closed her eyes for a moment before meeting his again. "Her name is Shaolin."

"Shaolin…" he whispered. The sound of him saying her name sent a pleasing ripple down her spine. "That's a beautiful name." He kissed her. "It suits you."

"It does?" she questioned softly. It was almost as if she was puzzled by his words.

"Beautiful name for a beautiful woman." He hoped that didn't sound too cheesy.

She frowned slightly. "I've never been told that before."

He brought his left hand up and laid it softly against her cheek. "You are beautiful Shaolin. Even more so when you smile."

Their lips met again, more urgently now. There was no denying anymore what she wanted and where she wanted this to go. He thought she was beautiful, thought her name, which she never thought she would share with anyone, was beautiful. He had enjoyed spending time with her this last week and she had to admit that she had enjoyed it too.

She was beginning to feel a sense of freedom now that she had never had before. There were no obligations here with him, no duty to anyone else, no expectations that she had to live up to. She was not being forced to do anything, everything was by her decision, her actions were hers to choose, and choose she did.

She chose to be where she was right now, chose to be with who she was with right now, and she chose to do what she was doing right now and everything that promised to come with it.

She, Shaolin, chose to make love to Ichigo and be made love to by him. If there was one thing she was definitely sure of, even more so now after having spent time with him all week, getting to know him and learning to let him get close to her, letting him inside her defences, it was this.

She wanted him.

No, that was too simple, there was more to it than just basic carnal desire and the thought hit her with the clarity of a ringing bell and it made her shiver.

She wanted him to take her, she wanted him to claim her as his and break the chains that imprisoned her heart and rescue her from everything that had darkened her life and left her so cold and hard bitten.

Allowing Shaolin out of her prison and letting her have her way was something she couldn't stop now even if she wanted to, and she most certainly did not. It felt to her now like it was the first thing she had done right in the last one hundred years.

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><p>He pushed himself up off of her smaller frame, intending to lay down beside her and catch his breath, but she wouldn't let him go just yet. There was something she had to say, something she had to tell him while she still had the resolve to do so and she wanted to do it while they were still in the immediate glow of their lovemaking.<p>

She looked into his eyes again, making sure his locked onto hers as well. Damn the consequences, but it was a truth stronger than any she had ever felt before and she had to say it.

"I-I love you…Ichigo," she told him softly, almost fearful of what his response would be.

He smiled down at her. She didn't need to worry. "I love you too, Shaolin."

Within herself she could hear the sound of a chain breaking, felt a loosening around her heart. She understood it now, what Lady Yoruichi had said about Ichigo unlocking her heart and she unlocking his. Shaolin _was_ her heart, and now she was unchained, she was free.

She felt tears coming to her eyes, but for once they weren't brought by pain or loneliness. She was happy, genuinely happy and she was so glad that she had given in to this and gave herself a chance.

He leaned down and kissed her before she let him go to lay beside her. She looked so beautiful right now. There wasn't a trace of stress or pain or anger in her face and eyes, just a genuine heartfelt smile.

She closed her eyes as she caught her breath, which much to his amusement ended up with her rapidly dozing off. He contained his chuckle and satisfied himself with watching her sleep. It was kind of amazing to him, the changes he had seen in her since he first met her. He knew that she had to be Sui-Feng in order to do her job, but he hoped that she never let that part of her bury Shaolin again. Judging by what he had seen from her this week, he didn't think that would be a problem.

He felt the bed move and a warm, naked body pressed against his back. He felt the tingle of healing kido repairing the scratches on his back as a pair of moist lips gently kissed his shoulder, a purple haired head appearing over it a moment later.

"That was hot, my sexy little Strawberry," Yoruichi purred in his ear.

"Wha…you were watching?" he choked out.

"Saw the whole thing from first kiss to loud, wet orgasm," she grinned. "I got off about the same time you did."

"Pervert," he smirked.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "And with two women in your bed, you're not?" she teased. She pulled him over onto his back and kissed him. "Thank you, Ichigo," she said in all seriousness. "I know I was asking a lot of you and I know I can never repay you for it. Once she stopped fighting it she really started to enjoy herself this week."

"You're welcome," he said. "And payback isn't needed. She's pretty easy to like once she drops those walls. I had fun spending time with her. With both of you."

"So you meant it when you said you loved her too?" she asked, pretty sure she already knew the answer.

"Of course I did," he answered. "I wouldn't have said something like that to her if I didn't."

"No, you wouldn't," she smiled. "You're way too honest to ever lie like that. I'm just so happy that you did, and I'm even happier that she said it to you."

"This really means a lot to you doesn't it?" he asked. "This was really important to you."

"It was," she answered. "She needed to see another side of life, another side of herself. She needed to know that she could feel something more than just her anger and hurt." She smiled again as she looked at Shaolin. "She needed someone to reach her heart and free it."

He smirked a little. "You know, you were right."

"Hmmm?" she wondered.

"She is pretty cute, and I do like seeing her naked, tight little body laying next to me," he teased.

She grinned. "I told you. And when she gets more comfortable with this the three of us can get together and she and I can make ourselves an Ichigo sandwich. Lucky boy."

His face reddened as that scenario began to play through his mind. She just smirked at him, laid her head down on his chest and closed her eyes. He wrapped his right arm around her and gently took one of Shaolin's hands in his left and closed his eyes.

'_Yeah,'_ he thought pleasantly. _'I really am lucky.'_

He was just drifting off when he remembered that he hadn't asked Yoruichi what she had been talking to Orihime and Tatsuki about that had them so animated.

'_Crap. Well, she likely wouldn't have given me a straight answer anyway. Might as well let it be a surprise.'_

For sure, life with his neko demon was never going to be dull. He suspected that the same could be said for her Little Bee. The three of them, linked together by their unlocked hearts.

Should be fun.

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><p>AN: Well, how was that. If you are so inclined, please leave a review.

The lemon version of this story, which I actually think is better, can be found at:

5Horse **dot** devianart **dot** com

I wanted to put an omake at the end of this chapter too, but I couldn't come up with anything that I liked. If I do come up with one I may add it later.

Hopefully it won't take me a year to get another story out either.


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